1. A husband and wife were buying a home with me. The wife wrote a check for earnest money from their joint checking account. Both their names were on the check. The husband was the primary. The wife's name was under his. Since the wife wrote the check and was not the primary on the account, the underwriter required the husband to write up a gift letter, donating the earnest money to his wife, in order to validate the funds. What a waste of time.
2. An FHA appraiser inspected a home for one of my buyers. She crawled up into the attic (first time I've ever had an FHA appraiser ever do this) and saw a bird's nest sitting next to a truss. She reported back that the financing would not be approved until the nest was removed. I thought "why didn't you just pick it up and take it down with you if it's so important?" Because of this contingency the seller, who was out of state, had to hire a vendor to go out to the home and remove the nest. Then, of course, the appraiser had to schedule a second visit out to the home to "verify" that the nest was gone. Ridiculous. This ordeal delayed my buyers' closing by three weeks.
3. Lender hadn't procured a receipt from buyer's homeowners insurance prior to closing, which really should be a big deal, but the deal won't close without it. She got on the phone and got a copy sent over. The underwriter didn't like the way it was worded. Do over. The underwriter didn't like the second one either. It said they had coverage, but it didn't explicitly say "paid". Do over. The third one also did not meet the underwriter's approval because the insurance agent had written "paid" on the receipt. The word "paid" evidently is only permissible if it's typed. The fourth receipt met the underwriters approval. This process turned a 40 minute closing into one that took almost 4 hours. The poor sellers were just sitting there. They were very gracious. So were my buyers, but NO ONE was happy.
4. We had to sign a Lead-Based Paint Disclosure verifying the home did not have lead-based paint on the property. This is a standard disclosure on homes built before 1978, but recently many lenders are requiring them on all homes, even brand new ones. The last several homes we've closed have been built 20+ years since lead-based paint was banned, but OK...what's one more disclosure going to hurt? I mean, let's just pile it on.
Moral of the story: if you're buying a home, put your seatbelt on and expect weirdness from your lender. It's not your loan officer's fault. It's not your Realtor's fault. It's just the way it is right now. They are inventing new disclosures and contingencies to financing every day. I would not be surprised if they start requiring blood samples to verify identity.
Mario Trejo Romero
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